


We Speak to the Stars

by ludgerkresnik



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 08:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15837336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ludgerkresnik/pseuds/ludgerkresnik
Summary: When Kiku was a child, he would speak to the stars. He would tell them his thoughts, his dreams, and his wishes. Most of the time, he would wish for a friend.





	We Speak to the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Hetalia Writer's Discord OTP challenge! I also posted it at my Tumblr, but am sharing it here!

Ever since Kiku was a child, he had always fallen asleep while watching the stars on the balcony and every morning, he would wake up upset, because he was in his bedroom and they weren’t out. Even if his life had been one of calm, and growing up was easier (compared to some of his classmates), they had always provided a source of comfort for him.

And throughout his life, whenever he had felt lost, he would ask the stars what he should do. He’d ramble away to a sky filled with balls of gas, hoping that maybe something would answer. He had pleaded during the months his parents were going through a divorce, begged for them to keep them together. His requests always fell short of ‘yes’.

In his loneliness of adolescence, he had asked those stars for a friend. Someone to keep him company, and a cat had arrived. Hungry, small, and scared. Kiku begged his mother if he could keep it, and with great reluctance, she had agreed but only if he made an attempt to go out and make some human friends. It didn’t go as planned, but he was able to keep the cat anyways.

And now, in adulthood, the campus is bustling with people. Some are standing around in groups and others are being led around by people with large name tags. Kiku isn’t so sure this was a good idea, having up and applied to university in a different country, far from his mother and his cat. Yet, there is a great comfort in being so far away, and in a new place.

He trudges along, walking through somewhat wet grass and dodges other students. He finally finds his dorm, and it towers over him, grand in its age and casting a shadow over him. A few students brush by him, the chipping, metal door opening as they run their cards through.

Now or never, he thinks as he forces himself inside. There are a few flights of stairs, going in an almost circular manner. He knows he’s on the main floor and finds the common area to be fairly empty as he walks through it. When he finds his room, Kiku enters in his keycard and watches the little green light pop up. Upon entering, he finds a few boxes in there, most of them unpacked and no sign of human life. Across the hall, he can hear bickering.

He had most of his stuff shipped, and they should be waiting for him at the office, but for now, he figures he should relax a little bit. As the week goes by, life steadies down and he finds himself easing into a daily schedule. Finding his classes and the buildings weren’t too difficult, but by the end of each day, it had him tired enough that he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow.

A few months into his first year of university, Kiku found that he was starting to have difficulties with sleeping. His roommate seemed to be able to sleep through everything, perched high off the ground and contentedly slumbering away. He would sometimes stare at that dark form with envy and he would toss and turn. This feeling, he had come to realize, as it eats away at him inside, was homesickness.

The first night he slipped out, he had gone undetected, past the room where the two roommates bicker, past the barely open door of the room assistant, and down the stairs. Soon, his feet is met with the cool, damp grass and he sits down and peers up at the stars. They carry such a comfort for him, even if his family may be seeing the sun.

As he lays in the grass and stares up at the stars, he hears the soft brush of footsteps and sits up, expecting it to be a police officer. A guy stands there, barefoot and topless, a sleepy look across his face. There’s a moment where the guy examines him and eventually does sit down with a little bit of space between them.

Kiku awkwardly sits there now, wondering who the guy is and if he should leave or say something. The guy doesn’t acknowledge him, and he seems to have fallen asleep. So, he decides, he’ll stay out a little while longer.

Each night, Kiku finds himself outside in the fields and staring up at the stars after that. He wonders if they can hear his thoughts, and are sending them to his parents. He had received an email from his mother, saying his cat wasn’t doing so well and he should take some time to return to say goodbye. His stomach clenches at that thought. His only friend will be among the stars soon, and he’s not sure he’s willing to accept it.

The guy is out there as well, and they never acknowledge each other. Yet, they sit near each other and Kiku is okay with that. The stranger has a comforting aura about him, and because of that, he finds himself hoping that every night he goes out there, the guy will join him.

One night, as Kiku is absorbed in an email from his mother, he hears a soft meow. The guy is clicking his tongue and holding out a finger towards a small cat who has a splash of orange on her face. He watches, with curiosity as the guy tries to reach out and grab the cat, who steps back quite a bit, ears back.

“It’s okay,” he’s saying, softly as he tries to coax the cat back near him. There’s a soft accent to his voice. A loud voice cuts through the air, and the cat runs away. A couple of guys walk by them, quite obviously drunk.

The next night, the guy is out there before him and the cat has yet to return, yet he has some food set out.

“Are you going to try to catch that cat?” Kiku asks as he sits down.

“Yeah,” The guy answers. “I work at the animal shelter, and she’s pregnant.”

Oh. So, they wait around in silent for the cat to return. Finally, when Kiku had started to feel too tired to sit outside is when the cat made her appearance again. The guy sets out some food in the space between him and the cat. They both watch as she cautiously approaches, sniffs and eventually scarfs it down. For the next week, the guy makes the attempt to get the cat to trust him. And each night, Kiku watches with curiosity.

“Do you have any pets?” The guy, who had introduced himself as Heracles, asks as he stares at the cat as she eats the bowl of food he had set out.

“Yeah,” Kiku says as he draws his knees up to his chest. “She’s sick, though.”

Heracles rips off a piece of beef jerky and sets it on the grass. “I’m sorry to hear that,” There’s a long silence and Kiku leans back. “I lived with my grandmother back in Parga, she would always feed the strays that would come through.”

Kiku digs his fingers into the grass. “Oh.”

“We had a lot of cats, they would sometimes back their home in our small yard or hang around. Some would just disappear, but they all meant something.”

“Yeah, I understand.” They lapse into a silence and soon, the cat disappears again and Kiku decides to go to bed.

Over the next week, as the nights grew colder and people started to make plans to return home for the holiday, Kiku found himself wondering what he should do. He doesn’t have the money to return to Japan, but he wants to say goodbye to his cat.

He prays to the stars that they send him a miracle.

* * *

 

His dorm is mostly empty now, as most have gone home for the break and he’s stuck on campus. The news had reached him about his cat, about how she had passed in the middle of the night. With that news, Kiku had felt himself disconnect. He wanted to go home to see her body put to rest, but couldn’t seem to bring himself to do so.

There are nights where he swears he can hear his cat meow, and feel her crawling over him like she used to when he was a child.

Every so often, he’ll meet Heracles at night but most of the time, Kiku finds himself locked away in his dorm. The stars no longer answer him. Winter greets them without much of a warning, and soon, the semester was up and as he was getting ready to head back for Japan for the few weeks he could see his family, Heracles is at his door gripping a large box.

“We have a problem,” he says. “She had her babies.” Kiku stares at him. “She needs help, and we don’t have time to get her or her kittens somewhere safe.” So he lets Heracles in and closes the door. They try their best to get the litter and the mother warm, with Kiku having run down to the laundry room and put in a few blankets into the drier and Heracles cupping and holding the kittens close to warm them up.

It feels as though it takes forever, being in a tense silence, but finally, it seems like all of them were brought back to the life. That night, the two take turns watching the litter and the mama.

The next day, when afternoon rolls by, Kiku has to get to the airport. Heracles thanks him for his help, and tells him that he’ll have the cat and her babies somewhere safe by the time he returns.

Him returning home wasn’t too monumental, but he was greeted with a big hug from his mother, and she had made his favorite dinner. After that, it was as though life had gone back to normal. As though he had never left. He says his prayers and greetings to his grandmother and one for his cat. His mother, ever so kind in her ways, had kept his cats collar for him, saying that way, she could always be with him.

Kiku doesn’t know how to tell her that he sometimes hears her at night. Her ghost lingers on and follows him everywhere with her little bell jingling like it always had.

Over break, Kiku receives an email from Heracles, offering to be a roommate in an apartment, because he has a surprise. He doesn’t know what compels him to, but he agrees to it.

Returning was difficult, and he almost didn’t want to leave but he remembers Heracles and the cat and her babies.

After he had gotten everything in his dorm packed up and ready to move into the apartment, his roommate gives him a quick goodbye, saying he was the best roommate he’s had. Kiku isn’t sure what to say to that but he gives him a quick bow. When he gets to the apartment building, most of his stuff had fit in one box, and up the stairs, Heracles is already waiting for him.

“Ready?” There’s a little more emotion in Heracles’ voice than what Kiku is used to. He always speaks so calmly, so quietly. As though he’s always tired.

Kiku nods and Heracles unlocks and opens the door. He walks in and looks around, a little confused. It looks like any other apartment, with a television, a couch and…his eyes fall in a large cat tree. Oh.

“I adopted the mama and her kittens,” Heracles says as Kiku sets the box down. “I had a feeling that you may have needed it.”

He feels tears prick at his eyes, and before he knows it, the burn becomes intense as tears roll down his cheeks.

“Hey, why are you crying?”

Kiku  _tries,_ lord does he try, between shuddering breaths and biting his lips, how he had lost his cat. How the stars ignored him, how things don’t seem  _okay_. Yet, nothing comes out. He feels something warm envelop him and pull him close as he quietly cries.

That night, he sits out on the deck while Heracles smokes, staring at the stars. For a brief moment, he swears he hears his cat meow and her bell jingle. Every day after that, she was gone and it was just him, Heracles and their cats.

And Kiku thanks the stars for their answer.


End file.
